Top Five Gags: The Boat

 *Spoilers.*

November 10^th, 1921—the day The Boat was released. One of Buster Keaton’s finest, this is just a damn good short. It’s very representative of everything Buster was as a comedian and a filmmaker, a simple story packed with mechanical gags, inventive stunts, and a slyness to the humor.

 

Leaving Home

When Buster builds a boat in his garage, of course he makes it too big to fit through the door. He removes the frame and some of the brickwork to create a bigger opening, but he misjudges, and the whole house comes down as he pulls the boat out. With the lifeboat reduced to splinters in the collapse, I love that he picks the bathtub out of the wreckage to use as a substitute. It’s a whimsical touch that pays off big later.

 

Man Overboard

Buster accidentally tips one of his sons overboard, and naturally, the life preserver sinks like a stone so he has to jump in after the boy. What really makes this gag are all the fun Bustery flourishes peppered in: checking the temperature of the water before diving in, Buster’s son stepping on his face as he (the boy) climbs back into the boat, and that wonderfully gravity-defying sight of Buster trying to pull himself back up by the seat of his pants. It’s just, *chef’s kiss!*

 

Barrel Rolling

I mentioned this scene back in my Top Five Stunts posts for Buster’s independent shorts, but it deserves a place here too. Because in addition to being a wildly-impressive feat of acrobatics and filmmaking to pull off, it’s just so damn funny to watch Buster tumbling and clambering along as the boat continuously rolls over and over in the storm-tossed waters. The crowning moment is when he decides to nail his shoes to the floor so he can stay next to the telegraph, operating it fully upside-down the next time the boat barrel rolls.

 

 

Springing a Leak

The patch Buster attempted on an earlier, self-inflicted leak has failed, and in all his wisdom, he decides that the solution is to augur a hole in the floor of the cabin and stick a funnel in it, so the water from the leak can neatly empty back into the ocean through the funnel. This is every bit as “successful” as you’d expect, and the resulting sequence of Buster desperately trying to stop the leaks as he gets battered by the rush of water is hilarious. It culminates in him delightfully trying to empty the water out through a porthole one teapcupful at a time (except, of course, the storm is blowing water in through the porthole too!)

 

Damfino

What I imagine might be the most famous pun in silent film history. It’s used first in the S.O.S. scene, which is also awesome, but I forced myself to pick just one Damfino gag and this is the classic. Damfino is the name of Buster’s boat, and the S.O.S. scene establishes the pun with the telegraph exchange, “Who is it?”, “Damfino,” “Neither do I.” And so, we don’t need an intertitle to explicitly state it for us at the end of the short, when the bedraggled family washes ashore. “Where are we?” Buster’s wife asks, and you can read the answer on his lips, loud and clear. Ending a silent short film on a pun—the balls on that man!

The Boat (1921)

Gotta love The Boat.  Even though I wouldn’t quite put it up with my absolute favorite Buster Keaton shorts, like One Week, Neighbors, or Cops, it’s very Buster, and it just tickles me.

The plot is very basic.  Family man Buster has built a boat, the Damfino, in his cellar (because reasons,) and the short depicts the misadventures that ensue as he, his wife, and his two small boys take it on its maiden voyage.  The Damfino leaves a trail of destruction, against itself and other structures, wherever it goes, and when a storm kicks up, things really go south.

In a way, this short is a more focused, seafaring version of the train sequence in Our Hospitality.  As with the train, it’s mainly a series of vignettes showing how ill-equipped the Damfino is for being on the water and how Buster and his family face the problems it sends their way.  I’d say it’s not quite as funny as Our Hospitality’s train stuff (so much love for that film, it’s ridiculous,) but it builds better to a comedic/dramatic head with the climactic storm and its fallout.  This is as it should be, since The Boat is a self-contained short and not an extended comic sequence in a feature film with a bigger story to tell, but the comparison itself is maybe a slight critique of The Boat – though it comes around in the end, it does mostly feel like a sequence rather than a story.

Still, you can’t knock the fun it has in the meantime.  I’ve already talked at length about the famous “Damfino” jokes and the hamster-wheel-esque, superbly executed Buster-in-the-cabin-of-the-revolving-boatscene, so I won’t get into those again.  There’s plenty of other stuff to talk about.  Right from the beginning, the Damfino is clearly trouble (Buster has built it too large to fit through the cellar door,) but bless him, Buster is determined to get the better of it.  There are some fun mechanical gags, like the boat’s collapsible fixtures and the bathtub lifeboat, and the image of Buster stoically going down with the ship as they’re still launching it is classic.

For me, much of the beauty of this short is in the little touches.  I love Buster literally pulling himself up by the seat of his pants when he falls overboard, and there’s something so delightful about Buster and his sons all hiding their inedible pancakes in their hats.  There are some great moments during the storm sequence, too, like Buster trying to light a candle in the middle of a howling gale/downpour.  And as much as I love Buster struggling against the hole he’s drilled into the bottom of the boat (to funnel out the water from the hole he made in the side, obviously,) what really kills me are his attempts throw the water out the porthole one teacupful at a time.

Once again, we have Sybil Seely as Buster’s wife, being a nice, charming presence in a role that doesn’t give her too much to do.  I absolutely love the two little boys playing Buster’s sons – not for any particular acting that they do, but for the great extent to which Buster uses them as glorified props.  I adore the fact that they wear matching porkpie hats, and it cracks me up every time Buster hauls one of them around like a sack of potatoes.  I’d say Buster probably required more acting from most of the dogs, horses, and cows he worked with, but those boys sure add a lot just for what he does with them.

Warnings

Slapstick peril and a little implied swearing.